An amusingly quirky hero’s journey—though few will be convinced that roaches belong inside the house.
A white cockroach aspires to gain acceptance by humans and become a pet, not a pest, in this debut children’s book.
In an abandoned house live many cockroaches. One, Tuodi, is different from his cohorts: He’s white, sapient, and wants to be accepted by humans. When he glimpses a human house across the intervening Jungle of Insects, Tuodi is sure that living there would be marvelous. Other roaches warn him that “humans hate us,” but Tuodi sings to himself: “I’m gonna be a pet, not a pest. I will lose the letter s.” Tuodi makes a very dangerous journey through the jungle, which is controlled by powerful ant factions. In the House of Humans, Tuodi is almost killed, but Jay Anderson, an 11-year-old boy, wants to keep him, never having seen a white roach before. When Tuodi shows off his intelligence, Jay’s parents alert the government, which subjects the roach to painful testing. He survives, becoming “more powerful and wiser than all other insects.” Devoted to the Andersons, Tuodi is helpful around the house (finding keys, removing splinters, carrying notes); he also brokers a peace agreement with other insects. As the story ends, Tuodi has become a great insect leader, but more importantly, he has become a pet. In his book (appropriate for all ages), McCants has a tough sell in trying to make a roach, even one as special as Tuodi, an appealing companion animal. As Tuodi’s kin Mooko sings, “We’re pests, we’re pests. We can make an awful mess.” And it seems paradoxical, even unhealthy, that Tuodi would dream of being “perfect in all human ways.” Why should he not want to be perfect in all roach ways? They’re an enormously successful species. That aside, the tale has eccentric charm, many moments of bravery and heroism, and humor, as when Mr. Anderson tries to alert an indifferent Department of Agriculture: “Sir, would you be interested if I said I was planning to raise thirty million of them for pets?”
An amusingly quirky hero’s journey—though few will be convinced that roaches belong inside the house.Pub Date: May 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-983002-20-5
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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